Chapter 31: The Current State of East Capital City
For ordinary people, this was the worst of times, but for Qin Jun, this was undoubtedly the best of times!
In the apocalypse, all restraints vanished, with naked power suppressing the populace and they could only passively accept everything.
There would no longer be any public outcry, no protests. Because in this era, there was no justice, only power and slaughter.
The strong preyed on the weak became the first principle, and being weak was the original sin!
Everyone had to adapt immediately to the rules of this era because in this era, death came so easily, so insignificantly…
……
East Capital City.
East Capital was now completely the private territory of the Qin family. In just one month, city walls surrounding the urban area were constructed.
The walls were approximately 70 kilometers long, 15 meters high, and 8 meters wide. There were eighteen gates, and on the walls, there were 1,656 firepower points and observation points.
This would make East Capital City impregnable against the zombies!Building such a grand and magnificent wall in just one month would have been impossible in the old era.
Because many factors had to be considered, like whether it would affect traffic, workers' rest time, and so on, but now, nothing needed to be considered.
For this month, the highest goal of East Capital City was to build the city wall. All streets were under military control, and all resources served the construction of the wall.
As for the workers' rest time—there was none.
The Qin family gathered over 400,000 workers to participate in the construction of the city walls, and the workers rested an average of only 4 hours a day.
After a month of high-intensity, nonstop work, approximately 6,800 people died suddenly on the job. The compensation for risking sudden death was merely that their families were allowed to live within the city…
Nevertheless, the city wall of East Capital was built, thoroughly isolating the urban area from the dangerous world outside, teeming with countless zombies.
This might be one of the few cities in the world capable of erecting city walls. After all, East Capital had a complete industrial chain and three large power plants, making self-sufficiency in industrial facilities possible.
The only problem was food—feeding millions of people every day was a staggering number. Although the city had millions of tons of grain reserves, enough for a year, it couldn’t afford to rely on these alone.
Since the city couldn’t grow enough food, it had to venture into the dangerous wilds to obtain it.
So, on the fourth day of the apocalypse, East Capital announced the abolition of old-era currency, replacing it with merit points. Each person could exchange merit points for food.
Earning merit points was simple—work. Whatever your previous profession—teacher, driver, white-collar worker, or financial professional.
None of that mattered.
Now you had only one identity, that of a subject of the Qin family.
Or rather, a slave.
Enter the factory to work, earn merit points, and then exchange all the merit points for enough food to stave off hunger.
Repeat the same cycle tomorrow, endlessly, with no end in sight. The entire East Capital seemed like a huge machine, and every ordinary person in it was just a part, a cog in the wheel.
They could never stop. Once broken, they would be discarded and replaced with new cogs.
As for the Evolvers—individuals awakening their abilities were exceedingly rare. Out of millions of people in East Capital, there were only a little over two hundred Evolvers.
The Qin family quickly recruited these Evolvers with wealth and status, making them loyal subordinates. As for whether these Evolvers might escape the Qin family’s control—there was no need to worry at all.
Because the Qin family itself was the largest Evolver organization—almost all the hundred-plus family members had evolved, a miracle indeed!
The 300,000-strong East Capital Garrison naturally became the Qin family’s private army. They were no longer protectors of the people but a violent machine maintaining Qin family rule!
Under the loyalty of the army and the Evolvers, the Qin family’s rule in East Capital was as solid as a rock, completely controlling every aspect of the city.
Of course, the Qin family didn’t entirely extinguish the hopes of ordinary people. In this city ruled by the Qin family, if ordinary people wanted to change their fate, they had to join the army or work hard.
After accumulating enough merits, they could escape the fate of being ruled like pigs and become part of the system helping Qin Jun maintain control.
And the populace remained surprisingly docile—they understood well. Though life in the city was tough, with daily hard work just enough to avoid starvation.
Compared to the extremely dangerous outside, this place was already like heaven.
At least they were still alive weren’t they?
…
East Capital, Third Military Factory.
“Fuck! Is this shit even edible?” A young man covered in grease angrily threw his lunch box onto the machine, his face filled with resentment and anger.
In the lunch box was a black, mushy substance with a faint sour smell, making one want to vomit and this was his ration.
The other workers stared at the lunch box, swallowing hard. Now, this stuff that wasn’t even fit for pigs was a rare delicacy in their eyes…
The young man’s name was Li Deng, twenty-one years old, a student at East Capital University.
After the apocalypse, he survived, but his parents and relatives all died in the catastrophe—in fact, they died in the military’s indiscriminate bombing.
Then he was assigned to the Third Military Factory, receiving a week of training before starting work, producing low-precision parts.
He worked thirteen hours a day in the workshop to earn these pig-feed-like rations. After enduring for a month, Li Deng couldn’t take it anymore!
An older man quickly whispered, “Xiao Li, keep your voice down, don’t let Supervisor Hu hear you, or he’ll give you a hard time again!”
The older man’s name was Song, and in the old era, he was the owner of a small supermarket. He wasn’t rich, but he lived comfortably.
After the apocalypse, his supermarket’s goods were confiscated, leaving him penniless, and he was also assigned to the factory, becoming Li Deng’s coworker.
Supervisor Hu, mentioned by Song, was the overseer of the workshop, holding the power of life and death over the workers!
He was greedy and brutal, known among the workers as “Hu the Flayer”…